NASA Ames expects new jobs under budget proposal

President Barack Obama's decision to change the nation's direction in space programs to emphasize climate research and unmanned missions will mean more money, more partnerships with valley companies — and more jobs for Silicon Valley's NASA base, officials say.

"We're highly confident that we're going to get more money, and we do believe it's going to enhance employment here, and in Silicon Valley," said Lewis Braxton III, deputy director of Ames Research Center in Mountain View. He said it is too early to know how many additional local jobs would be created by NASA's proposed new emphasis on unmanned space missions, climate change research, an extension of the International Space Station and plans to partner with private companies to launch astronauts into orbit.

Obama's decision to cancel NASA's plan to return to the moon has caused a storm of protest in areas like Central Florida and Houston that would have benefitted by a major new moon program. But for Ames, the proposed cancellation of the Constellation program that would have carried astronauts on a lunar mission will mean no layoffs or other significant negative impact, Braxton told reporters Tuesday.

Ames has only about 1 percent of NASA's Constellation program; about 100 people at Ames work on the program. All would get other jobs at Ames, Braxton said.

NASA's budget would be spent in areas other than a new moon rocket. Braxton said Ames' knowledge and facilities — supercomputers, ongoing partnerships with Google and other Silicon Valley companies; the ability to rapidly design and fly low-cost robotic missions — fit with NASA's new aims.

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Braxton said he could imagine more work for Ames' supercomputer facility and additional partnerships, such as the center's cooperation with Google, in which NASA has tapped Google's expertise to help make its spacecraft more autonomous, and building on partnerships, such as one with Cisco Systems, to integrate the world's climate change databases.

One major possible private industry beneficiary of NASA's new direction is Los Angeles-based SpaceX, which along with Tesla Motors is a venture started by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. SpaceX is vying to develop a rocket that could ferry astronauts and cargo to the space station.

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft that would have carried astronauts to the moon, but the company said Tuesday there would be minimal impact on its operations in Sunnyvale and Palo Alto, which focus on communications, surveillance and other satellites for the military.

"It's just a small number of employees here in Sunnyvale that work on the (moon) program," said Stephen Tatum, a Lockheed spokesman. "It would primarily impact Denver and Houston."

Lockheed issued a statement saying it was "keenly disappointed" in the Orion cancellation, which would affect "4,000 people and more than 100 commercial companies across the country."

The proposed NASA budget, which requires congressional approval, would increase the space agency's budget by $6 billion over the next five years, giving NASA a total $100 billion.

Ames will be "a portal for the country and the agency to tap into the valley," Braxton said. "Southern California has the aerospace industry, but we have Silicon Valley. We have the intellectual depth to make things happen."

NASA Ames is currently leading the Kepler mission, an unmanned spacecraft searching for Earthlike planets circling other stars.

In 2012, NASA will launch another Ames-controlled spacecraft, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADDE). The mission will study the dust and tenuous atmosphere around the moon, and test a new low-cost spacecraft design.